Maha to adopt dead labourer woman`s daughters

Mumbai: Maharashtra Women and Child Welfare Ministry has decided to adopt the four daughters of Vijaymala Pattewar, the labourer woman from Beed district who died during an illegal abortion last month.

Women and Child Welfare Minister Varsha Gaikwad visited the girls, who are living with their paternal grandparents, in Parli last Saturday. The girls` father is in jail, following the woman`s death.

Vijaymala allegedly wanted abortion after learning that she was going to have another daughter. Beed district is in the news recently due to high number of female foeticide.

Gaikwad said here today that the grandparents were not financially capable of looking after the girls.

"The elder three girls who are between 8 to 12 years old will be shifted to a shelter home in Majalgaon, about 10 to 15 km from Parli, while the youngest, who is one and half years old, will be provided Rs 450 per month under the `Bal-sangopan` (child care) scheme. The grandparents want the youngest girl to be shifted to the shelter home after a few years," Gaikwad said.
The ministry would bear the expenses of accommodation and education of the girls.

Gaikwad also said she had written to the Health Ministry to fill up vacant posts in the sub-district hospital at Parli. "There is no radiologist, no sonography machine in the hospital. It does not have a gynaecologist," she said.

"I have also written to the Home Ministry to make illegal abortions and sex determination tests a non-bailable offence," she added.
PTI